Episode 229 - Announcing our 2nd Quarter Readalong in our year of reading Ghost Stories

Episode 229 Show Notes

– 2025 Readalong Theme and 2nd Quarter Book – Our theme for 2025 is Ghost Stories! Click here to follow everything Ghost Stories 2025.

There is a ghost story discussion thread on Goodreads. Come tell us about your favorite ghost stories or those you are interested in reading.

The 2nd Quarter Readalong is The Good House by Tananarive Due. The Zoom conversation will take place on Sunday, June 8th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join. You can join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.

Over the course of the year, we will be reading The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce, one story at a time. If you would like to join us there is a schedule is available on the Ghost Stories 2025 tab on the website.

– Currently Reading –
Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust (CW) (audiobook)
Robin is doing a buddy read, follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinlgustafson/ and via #ProustPilotProject
Tilda is Visible – Jane Tara (EF)
The Song of the Lark – Willa Cather (CW)
Learn more about Colleen’s Cather reading challenger here and follow her at https://www.instagram.com/colleenka/.
The Wrong Way to Save Your Life – Megan Stielstra (EF)

– Just Read –
Twenty-Four Seconds from Now…A Love Story – Jason Reynolds (EF) (audiobook)
A Web of Obsidian –Lydia M. Hawke (CW) (audiobook)
Lone Women – Victor LaValle (EF) (audiobook)
How Birds Sleep – David Obuchowski, illustrated by Sarah Pedry (CW)
The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest – Heather Lang, illustrated by Jana Christy  (CW)
The Fishwife Cookbook: Delightful Tinned Fish Recipes for Every Occasion – Becca Millstein and Vilda Gonzalez (EF)
The Hebridean Baker: At Home – Coinneach MacLeod (EF)
Check out Emily’s Ingredient One post about these two cookbooks
Swept Away – Beth O’Leary (EF) release date 4/1/25
What Was It? – Fitz-James O’Brien from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris attended a Buzz Books 2025 Horror panel with authors and editor in conversation. Including Ivy Pochoda and her editor Daphne Durham, Markus Redmond and his editor Leticia Gomez, Hester Steel with editor Alexandra Murphy, and Daphne Fama with editor Candice Coote. You can watch the video here.  

Emily had a Couch Biblio Adventure with the Gentleman Caller watching the movie The Call of the Wild based on the book by Jack London.

Emily attended an event at Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot, CT with Elissa Altman and her book Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create. She was in conversation with Kerri Arsenault, Author of Mill Town featured on Episode 123. The genesis of the book began with a guest post on Krista Tippett’s On-Being, read it here.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
March 19 at 6pm, Chris is registered for an event via American Ancestors. Megan Marshall will be sharing her new book After Lives, featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 227, in conversation with Janice Nimura, author of The Doctor’s Blackwell featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 139. Register for the event here.

April 3 at 4pm, Chris is registered to participate in a virtual book club event via The Mount discussing Edith Wharton’s A Son at the Front and Willa Cather’s One of Ours. Register for the event here.  

April 9, Chris and Emily are heading on a joint jaunt via the Mark Twain House to hear Amy Bloom in conversation with Amity Gaige about her novel Heartwood. You can register for this in-person event here.

– Upcoming Reads –
The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce up next is The Haunted and the Haunters; Or, The House and the Brain by Lytton. If you would like to join us there is a schedule is available on the Ghost Stories 2025 tab on the website.
Bright Circle: Five Remarkable Women in the Age of Transcendentalism – Randall Fuller
Saving Vincent: A Novel of Jo van Gogh – Joan Fernandez (EF)
Murder Under the Skin: A Pentecost and Parker Mystery – Stephen Spotswood (EF)
Tell Me Everything – Elizabeth Strout (EF)

– Also Mentioned –
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
A Tangle of Obsidian by Lydia M. Hawke
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
Montana Women Homesteaders: A Field of One’s Own by Sarah Carter
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
Poltergeist movie
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
March on the Moors: A Brontë Reading Event with Melinda of A Web of Stories
The Flatshare by Beth O’ Leary
Evie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New England's Stone Walls by Robert Thorson
Hannah’s Books
She Writes Press
Fortune Favors the Dead: A Pentecost and Parker Mystery by Stephen Spotswood

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audiobook platform: Follow this link and use promo code: bookcougars
Shop on Bookshop.org – support the Book Cougars and independent bookstores!

If you’d like to help financially support the Book Cougars, please consider becoming a Patreon member. If you would prefer to donate directly, email for instructions.

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Episode 228 - Q1 Readalong: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Book Cougars Episode 228

Episode 228 Show Notes

Click here to follow everything Ghost Stories 2025.

– Currently Reading –
Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust (CW)
Robin is doing a buddy read, follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinlgustafson/ and via #ProustPilotProject
Hungerstone – Kat Dunn (CW)
Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create – Elissa Altman (EF) release date 3/11/25
A Web of Obsidian –Lydia M. Hawke (CW) (audiobook)
Twenty-Four Seconds from Now…A Love Story – Jason Reynolds (EF) (audiobook)
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin (EF)(audiobook)

– Just Read –
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson (CW)(EF) (audiobook)

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily watched the movie Lee starring Kate Winslet about photographer Lee Miller. It reminded Emily of reading Whitney Scharer’s novel The Age of Light. Whitney designed the Book Cougars logo and was featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 130.

Chris watched Season One, Episode Four of Roar: The Woman Who Found Bite Marks on Her Skin based on the Roar, a book of short stories by Cecelia Ahern.

Emily attended an event at RJ Julia’s Booksellers in Madison, CT. Kristan Higgins was in conversation with Charmaine Wilkerson and her new novel Good Dirt.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
March 19 at 6pm, Chris is registered for an event via American Ancestors. Megan Marshall will be sharing her new book After Lives, featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 227, in conversation with Janice Nimura, author of The Doctor’s Blackwell featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 139. Register for the event here.

April 3 at 4pm, Chris is registered to participate in a virtual book club event via The Mount discussing Edith Wharton’s A Son at the Front and Willa Cather’s One of Ours. Register for the event here.   

March 1 at 5pm, Emily will be attending an event at Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot, CT with Elissa Altman and her book Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create. She will be in conversation with Kerri Arsenault, Author of Mill Town featured on Episode 123.

– Upcoming Reads –
Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde – Thomas Wright (CW)
Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising that Changed America – Martin Duberman (CW)
The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce up next is What Was It? by Fitz-James O’Brien. If you would like to join us there is a schedule available on Goodreads or we can email a copy.
Lone Women – Victor LaValle (EF)
Swept Away – Beth O’Leary (EF) release date 4/1/25

– Out Now –
Three Days in June – Anne Tyler

– Also Mentioned –
The Crone Wars by Lydia M. Hawke
Judy Blume Forever documentary
Forever by Judy Blume
The Sundial by Shirley Jackson
The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
The Militia House by John Milas
Adaptations of The Haunting of Hill House:
The Haunting (1963)
The Haunting (1999)
The Haunting of Hill House serialized (2018)
On the Road with Penguin Classics: The Haunting of Hill House
On the Road with Penguin Classics: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
The Flatshare by Beth O’ Leary
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Help support the Book Cougars via our affiliates:
Libro.fm
audiobook platform: Follow this link and use promo code: bookcougars
Shop on Bookshop.org – support the Book Cougars and independent bookstores!

If you’d like to help financially support the Book Cougars, please consider becoming a Patreon member. If you would prefer to donate directly, email for instructions.

Join our Goodreads Group!

Check out our BookTube Channel and be sure to subscribe!

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Episode 171 - Author Spotlight with Marcie R. Rendon

Book Cougars Episode 171

Episode One Hundred Seventy One Show Notes
KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

Chris read the poem “The Margin” from the poetry collection The Historians: Poems by Eavan Boland.

– Currently Reading – [3:31]
The Writing Retreat – Julia Bartz (CW) release date 2/21/23
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age – Katherine May (EF) release date 2/28/23
The Library Book – Susan Orlean (CW)
Listen to Episode 62 when Chris and Emily chat about seeing Susan on a Biblio Adventure in New York City back in 2018
How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope – edited by James Crews (EF)
Emily read the poem “Improvement” by Danusha Laméris.

– Just Read – [14:36]
Reef Road – Deborah Goodrich Royce (EF) release date 1/10/23
The Foulest Things: A Dominion Archives Mystery – Amy Tector (CW)
Night Wherever We Go – Tracey Rose Peyton (EF) release date 1/3/23
The Light We Carry – Michelle Obama (EF)(audio)
Murder on the Red River – Marcie. R. Rendon (CW)(EF)(audio)

– Biblio Adventures – [30:26]
Chris started watching Three Pines based on the novels by Louise Penny.
Emily watched From Scratch on Netflix based on the novel by Tembi Locke.
Emily tuned in to via the Library of Congress to watch Jason Reynolds: Closing Celebration for National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.   

– Upcoming Jaunts – [54:38]
Chris is hoping to watch Kindred, the series based on the novel by Octavia Butler.

Emily is hoping to watch Bullet Train based on the novel by Kotaro Isara.

Chris and Emily are planning a joint jaunt to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. In preparation, Emily is planning to read Stowe’s short story “The Pearl of Orr’s Island.” Stowe is best known for her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

– Upcoming Reads – [41:24]
A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny (CW)
Moonrise Over New Jessup – Jamila Minnicks (EF)

– Author Spotlight with Marcie R. Rendon – [01:07:22]
We chat with Marcie about our fourth quarter readalong:  Murder on the Red River. The next two books in the series are Girl Gone Missing and Sinister Graves.
You can learn more about Marcie here.

– Also Mentioned –
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times – Katherine May
Elizabeth Gilbert
White River Books
Speak for the Dead – Amy Tector
Alice Henderson
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake – Tiya Miles
Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
Jacqueline Woodson
Mark Twain House
Firekeeper’s Daughter – Angelline Bouilley
Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl
Stephen King
Kurt Wallender Series by Henning Mankell
John Sanford
John Grisham
Shutter – Ramona Emerson

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this link for the monthly membership. (promo code: bookcougars)
We are an affiliate of Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click
HERE to start shopping.
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